Unfortunate timing sunk this enjoyable, family-friendly, 80's space adventure.

Yesterday would have been Christa McAuliffe's birthday (RIP 😢), and seeing her all over my Facebook feed made me want to review one of my favorite astronaut movies. Don't laugh: Space Camp.

Actually, you can laugh. It's okay. I know it's cheesy and ridiculous. I love it anyway.

Space Camp celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, having premiered in June 1986. I will never understand why the powers behind the movie thought it was a good idea to release it a mere 6 months after the Challenger disaster, but it understandably bombed at the box office. I didn't see it until years later, after it found a second life in VHS and cable among kids who didn't have Challenger etched into their memories.

The movie is set in the junior astronaut summer camp of the same name. This program was near and dear to my heart. Despite being invested in (and crushed by) the Challenger mission, teenaged me loved NASA. My family visited Marshall Space Flight Center often, and I always wanted to go to the real Space Camp. Now imagine that kid seeing this cover in Blockbuster. Kids in space? And not just one, but three astronaut girls? Is there any wonder I loved this movie?

The first part of the story is summer camp teen drama with a dash of science geekery. It has similar vibes to Real Genius and Flight of the Navigator. The characters are my favorite part, making up for all other shortcomings. They aren't super deep (there are six of them and it's only a 1 1/2 hour movie), but they're likable and memorable. I appreciate the way they defy the easy stereotypes.

Tish (Kelly Preston) comes across as a completely unserious airhead, but she's actually a genius and great friend. Max (a very young Joaquin Phoenix, in his first movie role) escapes from "whiny sidekick kid" territory with some really sweet scenes. Kevin (Tate Donovan) is a slacker just going through the motions, but he has a nice character arc as the group's reluctant commander. And Rudy (Larry B. Scott) is more than just comic relief with his work ethic and earnest plans to start the first fast food place on the moon.

The best dynamic is between Kathryn (Lea Thompson), the group's pilot, and Andie (Kate Capshaw), their adult camp instructor. Kathryn is a top-of-the-class go-getter who is utterly devoted to the space program. Her character could easily have been an obnoxious teacher's pet, but the movie instead gives her an awesome blend of competence and vulnerability. Andie is tough on her, but only because she sees herself in Kathryn and wants her to succeed. One of my favorite lines comes after Kathryn asks why Andie is always harder on her than the others:

Because someday, you're goin' up. But the only way that will happen is if you have every drill here down better than everyone else. There's no room for mistakes. Every 'i' dotted, every 't' crossed. That's the way I learned it. That's the way you'll learn it. You copy?

All the stuff at the camp was awesome, grounded by realistic training exercises filmed where the real Space Camp actually takes place. There's a bit of romance, a bit of camaraderie, a bit of bullying, a bit of science...even a great cautionary tale about AI alignment, when Jinx the NASA robot takes Max's instructions a little too literally.

And then, at about the halfway mark, the movie throws all plausibility out the window by engineering a Rube-Goldberg-worthy series of events that results in the kids (and Andie) being launched into space on a real space shuttle during a routine engine test gone awry.

If you can suspend your disbelief enough to get past this preposterous premise, the rest of the film is a fun, family-friendly adventure. The kids each get a chance to shine (and use their camp skills) as they take on one obstacle after another to get home safe. There are some genuinely tense moments (like when Kathryn almost gets them all killed by trying to butt into Rudy's job) and some really funny ones (Max's reaction to doing an EVA is hilarious - IYKYK.)

The film stands up reasonably well, though the effects in the space scenes have aged poorly. My kids saw it a few years ago. They weren't superfans like me, but they liked it well enough.

All these years later, I can still quote large chunks of the movie, and it'll always have a special place in my heart.

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